Month: July 2015

The Comic Book Code of Life

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I was looking over the Comics Code, and I thought to myself, Self, Why did we get rid of this? If more media or people followed even part of the comic book code I think we’d be a better society. For your benefit the code can be found here: http://www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm

The code just breaks down what is morally right and wrong, and lays it out. I don’t know how many times I’ve had conversations with friends or students and they ask me why I won’t play games like GTA (Grand Theft Auto), or watch movies like Fast & Furious, or the like, and I tell them it’s because it glorifies crime. Why do we feel the need to glorify the worst parts of our society?

I have had immediate responses (almost programmed responses I would say) “Video games don’t cause crime” or “Movies don’t cause crime” I didn’t say it causes crime, but it makes it ok to fantasize about killing or robbing or stealing. And when people fantasize about doing things they know are wrong, they start to ask “Well, why is it wrong?” and this is when the people who don’t have the social support of good friends or family start to cause problems for society.

Now I’m not saying that the code is perfect, for example Section B # 1 could be removed, (No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.) because those 2 words, “Horror” and “Terror” don’t scare anymore, but they do warn.  Section C “Marriage & Sex” # 7 (Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.) is too vague and if we’re not allowing sex period, (especially in children’s comics, unlike naked Thor: ) it should be removed, even if we PDA (public displays of Affection) it should be for all. I  digress, My point is: If the people we look up to on TV, or our children to look up to are drug dealers, thieves, and murderers what does that say about us as a society?

I want to express that I am not for organized censorship. But I wish the directors and writers would think about these things as they write. A lot of people believe they are just mirroring our society on TV, but in most cases they directly affect our society and how we think or feel. If children repeatedly see the police as the enemy in movies and TV, then of course they won’t go to them for help, like we should be teaching our kids.

Now if we held this code of conduct to our regular lives, we wouldn’t be having as many difficulties.

The re-ex-patriotism of the repatriated teacher….

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It saddens me to say that my family and I are leaving Canada again. We are heading back to Beijing, and though it saddens me to admit this, I am not as surprised as I should be. Canada has been a very good experience for all of us over the last year, and being here has accomplished most of the reasons we wanted to repatriate in the first place. Even though it will be difficult, we believe that leaving is the right thing for us to do at this point.

Since coming back to Canada, I have had the opportunity to meet and see some of my old friends again. Some I met for the first time in 12 years, some I haven’t spoken to in about the same amount of time. I do wish that I could see them again before I leave, but this is probably not possible. We also had the chance to introduce the children to 3 of their 4 grandparents on my side, all their Uncles, and one of their cousins. My wife, Irish, was able to make a few friends here, and we will try to keep in better contact with everyone this time around. Overall, the benefits to the family have been good.

On the flip side of that coin, we have been having non-stop financial difficulty since coming to Canada. Work as I may, we quickly went into debt, more than I ever thought was possible in 1 year. I became a financial burden on my family, which I never meant to be, and I am truly sorry for this. There have been days that I have lost sleep over this, and if you know me that means a lot. Now this has a 2nd negative effect, because, I believe, my credit is checked when I apply to sponsor my wife for her Permanent Residence (P.R.). Also if I accept any form of welfare from the government, I am immediately unable to sponsor her. One of our goals upon moving to Canada, was to process her P.R. from inside the country, and this has become nearly an impossibility.

One of the reasons we decided to return to China was, upon talking to my old boss in Beijing I was offered my old job back. I loved working at Zhongde School. I was a real teacher, the students were great, and I was working regular hours and was on a monthly salary, not an hourly wage. We will have to set ourselves up again, but we have confidence in that, as we know what we’re getting into there. Irish has friends in Beijing that she made the year before we left. We will be able to send money back to Canada to pay off our debts. I will be able to spend time with my children again. We can process Irish’s P.R. from Beijing, and things will return to “normal” for us.

Yes China has its difficulties, and we are worried about a possible war with the Philippines happening in the near future, which will explode into a multi-national war if started. We are not happy with the “Great Fire-wall of China” either, because that means that our tablets and phones will not have access to western social media, (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google +, to name a few). On a computer, which we no longer own, it will be possible with a VPN (Virtual Private Network), but we will have to buy a new computer first. We have lived with these for 8 years prior to our move to Canada, and should be ok this time.

I have been spending the last week working out our budgeting for the next year, to make sure we are going to be ok with repaying our debts, both personal and professional. This and Visa work for China has left little time to relax. I am still working at my company in White-Rock, and they know that I am leaving. I have been working on getting used to having time to call family and friends more often to keep them informed of what is happening, and let them know we are ok, and that we miss them.

We do not know for sure when we will return. I want to bring the family back to Canada for the summer Holidays in 2017 at the least. However, for us to return on a more permanent basis will require a lot of criteria to be met: first and foremost, we have to have paid off our debts. I have to have my teaching licence for at least 1 province (I was hoping to apply for BC & Alberta). We have to have savings, enough to survive for 6 months or more without work. I need to have a career set up for when we arrive, no part time jobs, but something that can allow me to take care of my family properly.

Education from this old man’s Point of View.

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We, as a culture, are still riding high on the thought that we are the epitome of modern educated society. I beg to differ, it’s hard enough being a child in this world, but when you have to deal with childish adults, it makes life much harder. Teachers are struggling with parents to get good habits into the children. We teach kids about good nutrition, and healthy snacks, mom and dad fill them with chocolate and fast food. We teach the kids proper etiquette, mom and dad undo that by swearing, being rude and shoving their self-importance around in front of the kids. We teach the kids that drugs are bad for their mind and body, mom and dad are toking it up at home.     We, as adults tell our children to go outside & play, to stop sitting in front of a screen (phone, tablet, computer, or TV) and yet, what do we do? We sit staring at social media on our phones, tablets, or computers, then when we switch it off WE turn on the video games, or we read on the screen. To a child, the hypocrisy is amazing. It boils down to the old adage “Do what I say, not what I do.” I want to raise my kids better than that, don’t you?

The comment “Smart phones, dumb people” comes to mind a lot lately. Adults have stopped processing information. We are supposed to be role models for our children, and yet they are the ones who are stopping to think about the whys and the hows of the world. Remember when you had to memorize your phone number and your friend’s phone numbers? Very few adults do that now. My students still do that. People don’t process what they read anymore. I have gotten so tired of seeing these “memes” of quotes from famous people or CEOs. And if you google the article it is from, the article has nothing to do with the quote. A perfect example is a picture of Peter Brabeck (CEO of Nestle) quoting that “water is not a human right,” if you read his article in The Guardian, (http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/nestle-peter-brabeck-attitude-water-change-stewardship) he’s not stating an opinion, he’s stating a fact that he feels needs to be changed. My old high school classmates are terrible for posting things like this, and I periodically go and post the article it is originally from, not the editorial that blew it out of proportion. If students see their parents grabbing 1 quote of an article and focusing on that only, why can’t they do the same for their textbooks? Or their whole school year. Boil it down to 1 sentence.

“Well Johnny, what did you learn in grade 3?”

“Flying cats are purple”

“Great job.”

This kind of attitude does come out in students once in a while in my class, but usually we talk through the activity to make sure that the article is not boiled down, but understood as a whole.

As a teacher, I have invited my students to bring and use tablets in class. My boss was against this originally, until I explained what I was doing. I give my students digital copies of the textbook if they bring their device, and we do online educational activities near the end of the class. It teaches them that these machines are not just for games. Yes I do have a couple of kids who try to play Minecraft or the like in class, but that’s just like when we used to slip comic books inside an open textbook as kids. If you monitor them and guide them, as a teacher, as a parent, as an adult, they stop trying it. They work through activities, completely, explain what they understood from the activity, and discuss it.

Most of the world views teaching and educating as a means to benefit their kids, prepare them for the future, and as an honourable profession. Did you know there is an international teacher’s day? (October 5th in Canada, Tuesday in the first full week in May, in the USA) Students and parents give gifts or cards to express their gratitude for helping raise the young, and prepare them for the future. In North America Teachers are viewed as glorified babysitters. They have to fight to get resources, or even enough pay to survive. Any difficulties with the speed a child learns, teacher’s fault. Two quotes come to mind: in Korea they say “Father, Mother, Teacher, under god.” Which means the most important people to a child are: their parents and teachers. In Canada I have heard: “Good grades: good student, Bad grades: bad teacher” In Canada it’s apparently a lose-lose for the people who are actually educating the kids. I’m not asking for gifts or praise as an educator, but as a parent, I think we should stop vilifying the educators and give them the support they need to help our children.